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Remember when the Internet was
fun? Before spam and viruses
and porn and “phish”ing
schemes ruined it for everybody?
Remember when websites contained
all actual content and you didn’t
need to avoid the large flashing
jumping monkey to read the article
on Medicare reform?
Ah, good times.
Well, even if you don’t
remember (and it wasn’t
that long ago, what are you,
nine?) I can tell you that those
were the Golden Days of the web,
except nobody was on it except
geeks like me, so maybe
it wasn’t so great after
all. But it certainly was safer
and free of offers for “sugper
viagrga”. So what are you
gonna do, go back to talking
and reading and
getting out of the house? No
way! We’ve got a better
idea, newsfeeds.
What is a newsfeed? Like many
things on the net its all started
with a standard that you don’t
really care about called RSS
for Really Simply Syndication.
Bascially it means it allows
someone to post items in a special
format that almost any application
can read. You can sort of think
of it like webpages, they contain
special codes that any application
that supports the codes can read,
regardless of platform. These files contain both the data and text describing the data.
The difference between RSS and
webpages is that RSS is designed
as a “pull” technology.
That is, unlike websites where
you “go” there and
get whatever the website wants
to give you (like ads and viruses),
with a newsfeed you gather the
items that you want and leave
the rest in a process called “subscription”.
The beauty of this is that you
can visit literally hundreds
of sites, check for things that
are new, and just see the info
that you want, all in just a
few seconds.
As a generic example I am a
Los Angeles Clippers fan. So
in my newsreader software I have
created a “watch” for “Clippers”.
Then every morning it scans all
the sites I have subscribed (like
all the national newspapers,
magazines, etc) for any mention
of the Los Angeles Clippers,
and presents me with all the
relevant articles. So every morning
I can wake up to more info about
the losingest franchise in sports
history. *sigh*
So let’s pull back for
a second and think about the
possibilities that this opens
up. If you visit a site like
CNN.com you are going to get
their perspective on what’s
important. If you go to OSXAudio.com
you will get a fairly diferent
perspective on what constitutes
the day's news, and if you go
to NBA.com a third altogether
different perspective. RSS allows
you to “flatten” out
the world of the Internet and
apply your own perspective on
it. And because you are only
exposed to the stuff that interests
you, you can cast your net much,
much wider. You can view not
just traditional publications,
but Blogs, Newsgroups, even email.
It is potentially a solution
to the “Information Overload” that
everybody has been complaining
about, allowing you to both filter
out unwanted content and present
them in whatever format is easiest
for you to digest.
But now maybe you are saying
to yourself “But Brent,
I’m a musician, we don’t
like to be well-informed. Who
am I, Billy Bragg?” Fair
enough I say, but being an electronic
musician nowadays requires finding
and consuming a lot of information
as well, especially if you are
someone who likes to remain on
the “Cutting edge”.
So how about the afordmentioned
OSXAudio.com, or KVR-VST.com
or Harmony-Central.com or iTunes.com?
Now are you interested?
So perhaps now you are saying
to yourself “Ok Brent,
how can I participate in this
revolutionary means of distributing
information?”, or perhaps
you are saying “I am sleepy
and would like some soup”.
Either way the process is relatively
simple, you just need to download
and install NewsReader software.
Browsers such as Firefox have
newsreaders available within
them but here are few links to
popular news readers (also called
aggregators):
PC
- Sharp Reader - http://www.sharpreader.net/
Mac/PC – Amphetadesk
- http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/
PC – FeedDemon
- http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/
PC (runs within Outlook) NewsGator
- http://www.newsgator.com/outlook.aspx
Mac – NetNewsWire
- http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/
So once you set these up maybe
you want some music related info
to go in there. Here are some
links to music-related RSS feeds.
audioMIDI.com: http://www.audiomidi.com/rss/homepage.xml
KVR-VST: http://www.kvr-vst.com/rss/kvr_news_main.rss
Harmony-Central: http://www.harmony-central.com/RDF/rss.xml
Gear Junkies: http://www.gearjunkies.com/rss/all
If you need more you can go
to sites like www.feedster.com and search for stuff that interests
you.
On any site you visit, if you
see  , that means that that page
is available via XML, or RSS
in other words (you may also
see the same graphic with RSS
in it). Clicking on that graphic
will usually either subscribe
you or take you to a page that
tells you how to subscribe.
Right now, somebody is working
to make this sort of thing impossible,
that is, all content/no advertising,
so enjoy
it now while it lasts.
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